Christmas
by ZACHDABOSSSS
Summary: If Harry had wanted to meet his living family over all else on Christmas. Set DH
1. Persuasion and Arrival

'Okay, I can't stand it anymore!' thought Harry. It was several hours after he woke up from the disastrous Godric's Hollow journey, and he was thinking about family. Not his blood family, but the closest one he ever had that is alive today. He walked out of the tent, up to Hermione, who was on guard duty.

"Hey Hermione, I'll take over for now." He said. She looked surprised, but welcomed the break. She went inside, and Harry sat in the entrance to the tent. He resumed his thinking of his closest family in life, the Weasleys. He knew that Ginny would probably be back for Christmas, and Ron would most likely also be at the Burrow, but there would be no way to check.

 **But there was.**

But it was too dangerous…

 **But it's Christmas!**

But I would be putting them in danger…

 **Christmas is a time of family!**

I can't apparate very well…

 **So convince Hermione!**

Knowing that the pros outnumbered the cons, Harry walked into the tent. Miraculously, Hermione wasn't asleep, but she was climbing into bed.

"Hermione," Harry said. "Can we go to the Burrow?"

Hermione looked at him as though he was daft. "Are you kidding me, it's way too dangerous!"

Harry blanched, and looked at her with his best defeated-with-puppy-dog-eyes look. "But it's Christmas, and Christmas is a time for family."

This time it was Hermione that blanched. She knew that Harry wouldn't let it go, not for something this important. Last time she had refused was for Godric's Hollow, and he hadn't let it go for months. "Fine."

Harry's face lit up, notably the first time in a long time it had done so. Hermione saw this, and knew she had made the right decision. He raced out the tent like an anxious five-year old, and she smirked but followed. The moment she was outside the tent, Harry packed it up using magic and handed it to her, and she put it in the beaded bag. She took down the wards, and he immediately put on the invisibility cloak and grabbed her arm. She smirked at him, and disapperated, appearing at the edge of the Burrow's wards.

When they crossed the wards, they had to hope that the Weasleys and whomever they may have over would be too distracted by Christmas dinner to notice. When they stepped across in sync, they knew that this was the case, as no distressed Molly or Arthur Weasley came sprinting out. They walked over to the door, still under the cloak, and Harry took the chance, stuck his arm out of the cloak, and knocked.

Mrs. Weasley was at the door a couple seconds later, and when she opened the door, and saw no one, she started to close it, but Harry stuck his hand out of the cloak and motioned her to stop. She had a small fit, but obeyed.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"Get Ron," said Harry, "I can't show myself and I understand you not wanting to let me in in these times."

Molly evidently didn't recognize his voice (he frowned) as she looked confused, and said: "Ron is in bed with spattergroit." Harry rolled his eyes.

"Then get Ginny." Harry said. Molly sped off.

Harry knew he was being a drama queen, but didn't care. He wanted to make an impact if he was visiting. He could just feel Hermione rolling her eyes next to him, though he didn't look at her. Molly came back and Harry's breath caught in his throat. He had never seen her look anything close to how beautiful as she did at this moment. She looked confused at seeing nothing.

"What's this?" She asked her mum.

"Someone is outside and said that they can't come out of their invisibility cloak, but they asked for you," he mum responded.

"Ginny," said Harry, his voice a partial too low for her to recognize it. He stuck his left hand out of the cloak, and Ginny looked closely at it, still confused by the look on her face. She noticed the faint imprints of red on the back of the hand and grabbed the hand to get a closer look.

'I Must Not Tell Lies,' she mouthed. Where did she remember that from?

Then it hit her. The blissful months in her fifth year, with her special someone explaining about Umbridge with the blood quill…

"Let him in," she told her mum firmly, and looked back at the hand with disapproval. It slipped under the cloak again, and her mum obliged, standing aside. Harry and Hermione stepped in and Harry slowly pulled off the cloak, not wanting to meet either female Weasley's eyes.

When his eyes (his head stayed down) looked up at the girls, he saw Mrs. Weasley's jaw opened wide, and Ginny frowning at him. He sensed Hermione in the same position as him.

Finally Ginny snapped out of it, stepped forward, and gave Hermione a huge hug. Mrs. Weasley squealed and hugged Harry, and he felt his bones cracking. Eventually Mrs. Weasley stepped back, and Harry saw Ginny doing the same. Ginny looked at Harry and he smiled faintly back awkwardly. Harry knew that they were going to have to have a talk later.

Great.

"Where's Ron?" asked Mrs. Weasley.

"Left," said Harry simply.

Harry and Hermione followed tentatively as Mrs. Weasley and Ginny walked back into the kitchen. Mrs. Weasley, of course, made as grand of an entrance as possible by saying loudly: "Look who decided to show up!"

Harry and Hermione entered. Silence. For about three seconds. Then Fred started clapping. Then George started clapping. Then Arthur started clapping. And everyone joined in one by one, until everyone (except Ginny, Harry noticed) was clapping as loud as they could. Harry and Hermione, unsure of what to do, stood there awkwardly. He noticed Remus looking at him in with a calculating expression on his (Remus') face, and he remembered him shouting at Remus at Grimmauld Place. Hurrah, yet another talk. But Remus was clapping all the same.

When the applause stopped, Molly cleared two seats for Harry and Hermione. And he wasn't sure whether it was an accident or if Molly purposely put him beside Ginny. Ginny looked as displeased with arrangements as he felt. They each scooted to the opposite edges of the chair, and Ginny took up conversation with George, who was on her other side.

The dinner was extremely good, and the one time Harry and Hermione were questioned, Harry said with a pained expression: "Can we not talk about that?"

He knew he also was t supposed to talk about it, but he didn't want to think about that in the moment of happiness. And then there was a second knock on the door. Mrs. Weasley jumped up once more, and ran to it. Harry and Hermione blanched when they heard the one word she said.

"Ronald!"


	2. Ron's Arrival and Ginny

Ron was there? Just another thing Harry needed. Another talk, to add to the list of talks he going to have with Ginny, every single faithful Weasley, and now Ron. (A.N Note I said faithful, not including Ron or Percy.)

Mrs. Weasley led Ron in, and he blanched at Hermione's glare. Harry set his face to look as emotionless as a rock, and Ron only looked at him for a second. Mrs. Weasley hurriedly set him a place and he sat down. He didn't even eat for a minute. And that was saying a lot, for Ron. But when he looked around, and saw everyone determinedly ignoring him, he dug in. Harry, Who was looking at Ron out of the corner of his eye, rolled his eyes. Typical Ron.

The dinner was mostly awkward silence, with Harry, Hermione, and Ron avoiding the gaze of the others. Everyone moved into the den after pudding, and Molly, trying to liven the mood, passed out hot chocolate. It worked slightly, with Fred and George starting to talk with Bill, and conversation moved out. Harry and Hermione talked in whispers, and Ron just sat there. They were the only ones that weren't lively after about twenty minutes. But twenty five minutes in, Remus came over.

"Hey, Harry," he said.

"Remus!" Harry responded. "Good to see you! Anyway, how's the little baby?"

Remus glanced over at Tonks with a smile. "Healthy as can be."

Harry gave as big a smile he could. "Anyway, Remus, sorry about Grimmauld Place…"

"Harry," Remus said, cutting him off. "I didn't like it at the time, but what you did was a huge favor to me. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it, and I can't thank you enough. It took me a few days, but I completely understand your decision. Parents shouldn't leave their children unless they have to."

Harry smiled. "Those were the exact words I used when explaining my mood to Ron and Hermione."

Remus laughed. And they began talking, about mundane things at first, but gradually exceeding small talk, and just talking about life. Harry told him the bare minimum when asked about his mission.

"Sorry, Remus, but I can't tell you. It's between me and Hermione, at the moment."

Remus looked slightly miffed, but nodded.

They started talking again, and when he walked away to talk to Arthur, Harry saw Hermione talking with Tonks, and Ginny looking at him. He knew exactly what that look meant. He nodded, and she walked upstairs, no doubt to her room. She said nothing, but when Harry went up a few seconds later, he purposely walked past Ron, muttering gibberish but including the word "loo" loud enough that Ron could hear. He still hadn't forgotten his birthday.

He walked up the stairs, and stopped when he got to the first landing. He knocked tentatively, and opened the door when he heard a small "come in" from Ginny. He opened the door and found her laying on her bed, staring at the ceiling. She pointed at an empty, chair, showing no emotion. He sat down and looked at her nervously. She didn't talk for a full minute, and Harry wondered if she was enjoying keeping him sitting there. But she still showed no emotion.

At last, she talked. "So."

She looked at him expectantly, as if she wanted him to say something. He was confused for a second, and she sighed. "Nothing?"

He was still confused. So she sighed once more. "Anything you perchance would like to say to me? As in why you came? Or _where the hell have you been these past months?_ "

Harry nodded, and internally shrugged. They wouldn't go back to any of the places anyway. "Er, first where we've been. After the wedding, we went to an alley on Tottenham Court Road, and changed. We went to a cafe, got attacked by Death Eaters." Ginny looked as though she was about to say something, but Harry held up a hand. "Still don't know how they found us. I believe it was Dolohov and Rowle, and they didn't even see me. I was under my Cloak. And we wiped their memories anyway.

"After that we went to Grimmauld Place, managed to get Kreacher into a good mood by giving him something of Regulus'. Lupin came, I chucked him out." Ginny looked outraged at that. "I didn't want him to leave Tonks. No parent should ever- willingly- leave their child." Tears burned his eyes at that point unexpectedly, and he saw Ginny giving him a somewhat sympathetic look. He continued. "You might have heard about our break-in to the Ministry." Ginny looked surprised and shook her head. "Oh. we Polyjuiced and broke in to steal an artifact, something that could help us. We got it, but Yaxley flooed out with us, and Hermione had to apparate out of Grimmauld Place. It wasn't safe there anymore.

"Anyway, we arrived in the Forest of Dean, and we stayed there for a while. But then Ron got mad and left, turns out the artifact makes your temper fly.

"Next, two days ago (A.N. this is after midnight), we went to Godric's Hollow, saw my parents' graves. But Voldemort found us and we missed him by a minute. I passed out and Hermione apparated. I had some pretty bad nightmares last night though. I saw my parents dying from Voldemort's perspective. And then I asked Hermione if we could come here, and she agreed. So here we are."

Ginny had actually seemed like she had sympathized him during the story, especially the parts when he mentioned his parents, and the nightmares. But now she seemed as emotionless as a brick wall. "So- Tottenham Court Road, Grimmauld Place, Forest of Dean, Godric's Hollow, then here."

"Yes."

"And, in all this time, you never even tried to contact us, let us know you're okay."

"Actually, no. I talked to your dad at the Ministry, but he didn't know it was me. Told him what I had found out. You guys are being watched."

He had expected her to look surprised, but she didn't. "So you were Albert Runcorn. Who were Ron and Hermione?"

Harry looked momentarily surprised, but he quickly got over it. "Ron was Reg Cattermole and Hermione was Mafalda Hopkirk. Reg is Magical Maintenance and Mafalda writes the Underage Magic letters."  
Ginny nodded. "And I presume you aren't going to tell me what this supposed 'artifact' is?"

Harry nodded. "Sorry Gin, Dumbledore told me to only tell Ron and Hermione. I didn't even tell McGonagall."  
Ginny nodded, slight disappointment on her face, but she quickly stifled it. "You also haven't answered my first question. Why'd you come here?"

Harry's face started to turn a slight shade of pink, and Ginny's eyes narrowed. "I just wanted to be with my family on Christmas," he said.

Ginny's mouth dropped open, but unlike before she didn't stifle her emotions. Shock showed in every feature of her face, and she looked like she was going to say something but didn't. It might have been comical in any other situation to see her acting like a goldfish. After about a half a minute she finally spoke.

"I'm sure mum would be very touched."

"And you?"

"I'm surprised that you would consider us your family."

Harry looked at her. "Who else would it be?"

Ginny looked at him as if he were daft. "Your actual relatives."

This time Harry did smile, then start to chuckle. This evolved into a laugh, and finally into a gut-wrenching howl. He was surprised nobody had barged in yet.

Ginny was still looking at him as though he was an idiot. It took awhile for Harry to calm down, and he wiped tears of laughter off of his face. "Good one," he said.

Ginny looked extremely confused. "Why don't you consider them family?"

Harry suddenly turned serious. "Did you know," he said. "That the first hug I ever got that I remember, actually, was from your mum."

Ginny looked extremely surprised. "When? She never said anything about meeting you as a child."

Harry sighed. This was going to be difficult. He looked at his feet. "Third Task," he muttered unintelligibly.

"Come again?"

"After the Third Task," Harry said, louder this time and looking up.

Ginny gasped. Harry could only imagine what she was thinking.

"So… You– never got a hug until you were 14?"

Harry looked at his feet once more, and nodded. And Ginny did something that surprised him and probably her as well. She hugged him.

Now they had hugged before, in those amazing months in Harry's sixth year, but nothing they had done before had come close to this. Before they had hugged because they had liked each each other, and because they could. This was different. This time Ginny put every single ouch of love, sympathy, pain, thankfulness, pity, everything, that she had ever had for him.

The surge of emotion made Harry gasp slightly. He felt his eyes burn with unshed tears, and he hugged her back.

He tried to make his hug just as emotional, but he doubted his came close to Ginny's.

Finally she pulled away. She sat on her bed again, and just looked at her feet. Harry spoke first.

"Ginny–"

She looked up at him, and she looked like she felt extremely awkward.

"Ginny." He continued. "Will you go out with me again?"

Harry could see her eyes light up, but Ginny kept a straight face for about five seconds until she grinned. "Well it's about time you asked." She said.

Harry laughed. "I'll take that as a yes." Ginny nodded. And she kissed him.

If it had seemed as if it had been a long time before their last kiss on Harry's birthday before this day, this made it all worth it. It was good if not better than the one on Harry's seventeenth, and this time there was no Ron. It was a while before they pulled apart.

They smiled at each other, before Harry frowned. "I'm going to have to leave again."

Ginny frowned as well, but nodded.

"And I have to talk to Ron before the night is over."

Ginny nodded and shrugged. "But not now." And what they _did_ do at that moment was quite obvious. It was as innocent as the time spent by the lake the past year, but just so. And it was quite a while before Harry knew that Ron must be getting suspicious. So he left hand in hand with Ginny, so Ron would know straight off the bat he had lied, and leave him at it.

So they walked out and down the stairs.

As they reached the bottom of the stairs, not everybody but many people looked at them, and a few looked shocked but most seemingly internally shrugged that Harry and Ginny were holding hands. Harry made eye contact with Hermione first, they exchanged nods, and Hermione stood. And Ron suddenly looked fearful as Harry, Ginny, and Hermione started the walk to his doom.

 **Okay, sorry I ended it here, but I'll publish the last part on Christmas! At least Christmas in western USA, probably mid-afternoon. So if I publish something on this story before then, it's not the last part.**


	3. Ron and Leaving

Ron had prepared himself, scooting over so the three could sit down. They did.

They sat in silence for a bit, with Ron looking at his shoes and the other two simply looking at him. Harry spoke first.

"Why?" He didn't have to specify.

Ron looked up. "It affected me more than you. I saw Harry lose his temper a few times, and it's a miracle Hermione didn't. But it made me lose all hope, and then I would take it off and recover slightly, but then would have to put it on again. It was going downhill steadily." Inside Harry thanked Ron for not saying what it was. Ginny seemed confused but she continued to glare at Ron. But Harry and Hermione softened slightly.

Harry spoke. "How did you know we were here?"

Ron took the deluminator from his pocket. "I heard talking, in here. It sounded like you guys and mum. Didn't take long for me to figure out where you were. So I packed up and Apparated to the Burrow."

None of the three understood how he heard talking from the deluminator, but they took it in their stride. Ginny was still glaring coldly, Hermione was slightly better, and Harry was the best of the three. So Harry spoke. "I believe you."

Hermione nodded slowly and Ginny shrugged. They knew Harry didn't trust easily, so they took his word for it. So the three stood up, and Harry put his hand on Ron's shoulder, then took it off. Ron smiled at him. And the three walked away. Harry and Ginny sat on the couch together and Hermione picked up a conversation with Tonks.

Ginny spoke. "Do you really trust him?"

Harry shrugged. "Enough. I don't completely forgive him, but we probably will have to take him, he knows too much."

Ginny nodded, looking sad. "So you guys are leaving again?"

Harry nodded as well. "That reminds me– Hermione!" Hermione looked over. "Can I see your beaded bag?" Hermione nodded and tossed it to him. Harry opened it and reached around for a second. He pulled out a piece of parchment and Ginny grinned. She remembered that parchment. Harry looked at her. "I'm giving this to you so you don't get caught. Give Snape and the Carrows hell." And with that he handed over the Marauder's Map. Ginny took it and put it in her pocket. He took out another piece of paper, that Ginny didn't recognize. And another. "Can I have your wand?" He asked.

She handed it over. "What happened to yours?"

"Broke." He seemed ashamed. She nodded and didn't bring it up again.

He said a spell she couldn't make out on each piece of parchment, and then handed her one. He conjured a quill and ink, and dipped the quill in the ink. He wrote on the parchment he still possessed. Ginny looked at her own and was surprised to see the same lightning bolt on her piece. Harry grinned. "I've had time to do some research. Now we can communicate. But always draw the lightning bolt so I know it's you. Also, the parchment should get hot, like a DA galleon when one of us writes on it."

Ginny nodded, awestruck that they could do this. Harry smiled, and they each put their own parchment in their pockets.

Ginny lie down and rest her head on Harry's lap and he started playing with her hair. They sat in silence, until Ginny smirked. "So did you meet any Veela?"

Harry laughed. "Don't worry, I didn't. As I said, dating opportunities are pretty thin."

Ginny smiled, and they began talking. Small talk mostly, nothing important. As Harry said during that conversation, "We'll have time to talk when this is all over."

Mrs Weasley passed out egg nog, and they stayed up until midnight having an amazing time. Even Rom let down his guard and was gesturing obscenely while talking about something to Remus, and Remus was laughing. Nobody mentioned the war.

And then Molly told everyone to get to bed. Harry was surprised to discover that it was after midnight. So he gave Ginny one last kiss goodnight, and nodded at Ron. They walked up the stairs together, and Hermione and Ginny were right behind them. They stopped on the first landing, and Ginny went into her room. Harry walked up to Hermione, and whispered, "Don't fall asleep." Hermione nodded.

So Harry and Ron continued up the stairs, and entered Ron's room. Harry whispered the same thing to Ron, but they both got into bed and pretended to be asleep. This paid off when Molly came in and checked on them ten minutes later, then walked out quietly.

About twenty minutes after the last sound in the house they heard, Harry motioned Ron to get up. He did so, and they both walked out of the room. Ron seemed to remember something, and silently pulled a wand out of his pocket and gave it to Harry. Harry looked at him curiously, but Ron gave him a look that said he would explain later. They started walking down the stairs.

Harry had been there enough to know to skip the loud steps, and they made it to the first landing without consequence. They opened Ginny's door.

Ginny seemed to be asleep, but Hermione was reading a book in the moonlight. Hermione looked up when they entered, and nodded. She got up and walked out, and Harry walked in the room. He walked up to Ginny and kissed her forehead. "I love you," he whispered.

Ginny grinned, revealing she was awake. Without opening her eyes, she said, "I love you."

Harry smiled. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye. Write to me."

"I will."

Harry walked out of the room. He smiled at the other two and they walked down the stairs. When they walked out the front door Harry turned to Ron. "How did you know I didn't have a wand? And who's is this?"

Ron turned to him. "I heard you telling Ginny. And I ran into a group of snatchers, and snatched one of their wands. Ironic, eh?"

Harry grinned and nodded. And they walked to the edge of the apparition point. They would finish the mission,

He would do it for Ginny.


End file.
